Super Quick Halloween Decor

Framed Skull

Today I'm sharing 2 REALLY simple projects.  Honestly, I don't think they could be any easier!

The Framed Skull takes very few supplies, and goes together very quickly.  I bought a few styrofoam skulls from Michaels last year with the plan to make a "Spell Book" and to mount a skull to the cover.  I am currently working on that project, but it is a VERY detailed, and complex job and most likely won't be ready to show until NEXT Halloween.  Anyway, my original plan was to use this skull, but it was going to be too large to allow the book to open properly.  I had sliced the back of the skull off to provide a flat surface to glue to the front of the book.  The following picture is actually the skull I ended up using for the book project.  I never took pictures of the larger skull being cut.

There's no magic to this, just slice the back off with a craft knife until it lays flat.

Next, I went through my pile of Thrift store frames to find the size and shape I wanted.  I took an old shipping box and traced the opening to create a backing for the skull to sit on.

I knew I wanted to use something subtle as the background, so as I rummaged through my scrapbook paper, I found this one in my collection of  retired Close To My Heart paper.  Now, I know, a better business person would have chosen CURRENT paper, that would compel viewers to hop over to my website and ORDER, ORDER, ORDER!  That being said, I do have a few more projects coming up using current Close To My Heart products.  But lets be honest, I want my viewers to see my projects and be compelled to try something new.  If they choose to shop my website, AWESOME!  But if not, that's o.k. too. 

I was able to cut the backing close enough to create a tight fit.  Then I popped the backing into the frame and didn't need to do anything else to hold it in place.

The last step was to get some straight pins from my  sewing supplies and I literally "pinned" the skull to the backing.  I pushed 2 pins straight from the back into the top of the skull.  Then I took 2 more and went into the lower jaw area.  Just be mindful that you don't push the pin in so far that it comes out the front of skull.  This wasn't an issue in the forehead area, but I did have to fiddle around a little with the jaw line area.  These had to go in at a slight angle, which I decided was great because now I have holding power from a couple different angles.

Since this complete project weighs next to nothing, I simply used a twist tie to work as a hanger.  I taped it to the back with duct tape.  Not pretty, but no one sees it, so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it, lol!

Project 2

I've been watching the Headless Horseman series on T.V. and the other night, while watching it on my DVR, I noticed the Horseman's horse has glowing red eyes.  OK, I've noticed it before now, but this time I remembered a book end I have, and thought, hmmmmm, all it really needs is red eyes, and it will look creepy!  

Here's a before picture:

Nothing creepy about it.  But I do think the addition of some red vinyl cut into eyeball shapes makes all the difference.  This project literally took 5 minutes to complete, and that includes digging out my red vinyl, lol!

Here's one last look:

It looks great in the finished display.  What??? Another tease, tee hee!  Keep checking back to see the final display.  I'm so happy with how everything is coming together.